Turkey went to the polls today, and the AKP — the party of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan — lost its absolute majority in parliament. The AKP still won, but received only 42% of the vote, and will have to head a coalition government.
In other news, up to half a million would-be migrants are said to be waiting in North Africa to attempt to cross the Mediterranean to Europe.
To see the headlines and the articles, click “Continue reading” below.
Thanks to Fjordman, JD, Papa Whiskey, RRN, and all the other tipsters who sent these in.
Notice to tipsters: Please don’t submit extensive excerpts from articles that have been posted behind a subscription firewall, or are otherwise under copyright protection.
Caveat: Articles in the news feed are posted “as is”. Gates of Vienna cannot vouch for the authenticity or accuracy of the contents of any individual item posted here. We check each entry to make sure it is relatively interesting, not patently offensive, and at least superficially plausible. The link to the original is included with each item’s title. Further research and verification are left to the reader.
Greece’s Tsipras ‘Failed’ To Deliver Promised Plan — Juncker
Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras failed to deliver alternative economic reforms that he had “promised”, says European Commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker.
Mr Juncker urged Mr Tsipras to come up with some alternative proposals “swiftly” so that negotiations could continue this week.
On Friday, Mr Tsipras rejected the EC’s own reform proposals as “absurd.”
Mr Juncker was speaking at the G7 summit in Bavaria.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Central Banks Are Losing Control of the Financial Markets
by Tyler Durden
For years, global central banks have been manipulating the financial marketplace with their monetary voodoo. Somehow, they have convinced investors around the world to invest tens of trillions of dollars into bonds that provide a return that is way under the real rate of inflation. For quite a long time I have been insisting that this is highly irrational. Why would any rational investor want to put money into investments that will make them poorer on a purchasing power basis in the long run? And when any central bank initiates a policy of “quantitative easing”, any rational investor should immediately start demanding a higher rate of return on the bonds of that nation. Creating money out of thin air and pumping into the financial system devalues all existing money and creates inflation. Therefore, rational investors should respond by driving interest rates up.
Investors are starting to behave more rationally and the central banks are starting to lose control of the financial markets, and that is a very bad sign for the rest of 2015.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
2 Killers Used Power Tools in Upstate New York Prison Break
The two convicted murderers who escaped a New York maximum security prison near the Canadian border had to have been overheard by someone while they were planning the “elaborate” plot, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Sunday, as bloodhounds and helicopters were on the hunt for them.
Cuomo said Richard Matt, 48, and David Sweat, 34, staged “a really elaborate, sophisticated operation” Saturday that ended at a manhole cover blocks away from the prison.
Roadblocks were set up in the area, which is about 20 miles from the Canadian border, and bloodhounds and helicopters were being used to track down the men, officials said.
New York state is offering a $100,000 reward for information that leads to the capture of the two convicted.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Are All Muhammad Cartoons in Bad Taste?
by Johanna Markind
“Boss” Tweed, head of the corrupt late-19thcentury leadership of New York City known as “Tammany Hall,” is reputed to have had a particular aversion to cartoonist Thomas Nast. Why? Because Nast exposed Tweed’s corruption in a pictorial form that was easily understood and effective — by political cartoons. “Stop them damn pictures. I don’t care what the papers write about me,” were Tweed’s instructions to his minions.
Why do people express serious concepts in cartoons? Because they are effective in getting the message across. Some cartoons are in good taste, some in bad taste.
Yet it has become fashionable in some circles to deem ANY cartoon representation of Muhammad automatically to be in bad taste. That becomes a justification for failing to print any such cartoon, no matter how incisive or newsworthy. Garry Trudeau adopted this logic in his critique of Charlie Hebdo. Sadly, many PEN members followed suit.
The New York Times implicitly accepted that some Muhammad cartoons could be in good taste when its editor commented, “We have a standard that is long held and that serves us well: that there is a line between gratuitous insult and satire. Most of these [Charlie Hebdo cartoons] are gratuitous insult.” But even though “most” is not “all,” the Times did not find EVEN ONE Charlie Hebdo cartoon newsworthy in the wake of the massacre, to the consternation of its ombudsman. Its actions imply that in reality there is no distinction between good taste and bad taste cartoons of Muhammad.
“Ultimately,” explained the ombudsman, the editor “decided against it, he said, because he had to consider foremost the sensibilities of Times readers, especially its Muslim readers. To many of them, he said, depictions of the prophet Muhammad are sacrilegious; those that are meant to mock even more so.” Clearly, ALL pictures of Muhammad are proscribed under this heckler’s veto, NOT ONLY “those that are meant to mock.”
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Are Boston Terrorism Cases a Trend?
By Shelley Murphy and Peter Schworm
The Tsarnaev brothers exploded bombs at the Boston Marathon. Tarek Mehanna translated documents for Al Qaeda from his Sudbury home. Ashland’s Rezwan Ferdaus planned to crash model airplanes laden with explosives into the Pentagon and US Capitol.
All were homegrown terrorist plots in and around Boston in recent years. And then, last week, a Roslindale man who was being tracked by an antiterrorism task force and who allegedly had vowed to kill police officers was shot to death by investigators as he allegedly brandished a knife.
These episodes raise a question: Is Boston more vulnerable to violent extremism than other parts of the country? Antiterrorism specialists interviewed by the Globe said there is no easy answer.
Some said the region is no more likely to be home to extremists than anywhere else in the United States, while others suggested that Boston’s emergence as an international hub may leave it exposed to strains of radicalized behavior.
“Clearly, there have been a number of incidents here, and some of that is because Boston is really an international city,” said former Boston Police Department commissioner Ed Davis, who is an international security consultant and a consultant to the Globe.
Still, he said, “I don’t want to downplay the fact there have been repeated incidents. I think we have to look closely at it at this point.”
[…]
James Forest, director of security studies at the University of Massachusetts Lowell’s Center for Terrorism and Security Studies, said many US cities have felt the threat of terrorism since Sept. 11, 2001. Boston, he said, is not an outlier.
“We’ve seen similar kinds of plots in many cities,” he said. “These guys could just have easily been in Chicago, Denver, or Houston.”
Forest, who also teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, described the plots as “do-it-yourself terrorism,” inspired by groups like the Islamic State, but carried out locally.
“The ideology that motivates these kind of attacks, there are no geographical boundaries.”
[That’s because, thanks to the “refugee resettlement” (read: “Muslim importation”) program of the U.S. State Department and the mosque construction program of Saudi Arabia facilitated by the U.S. Department of Justice, the ideology of Islam is everywhere — an Islamic “sea” in which terrorist “fish” swim freely, in accordance with the guerrilla-war dictum of Mao Tse-tung. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
EPA Hid Truth About Glyphosate and Cancer for Decades to Protect Monsanto’s Corporate Profits
(NaturalNews) Did the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency run cover for biotech behemoth Monsanto for years to hide the cancer-causing properties of one of the agri-giant’s most profitable chemicals? Absolutely, asserts Dr. Anthony Samsel, a research scientist and consultant who says he has EPA documents in his possession which allegedly show that Monsanto was aware of research tying glyphosate, the primary chemical in the company’s popular Roundup herbicide, to cancer since the 1970s.
In a recent interview, as reported by Health Impact News, Samsel — who has been studying the toxicity of glyphosate, the world’s most prolific herbicide, which is used in the cultivation of GMO crops — notes that, in the past, much of his research linking glyphosate to illness have been dismissed.
In conjunction with fellow researcher Dr. Stephanie Seneff, he has helped author the studies “Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases III: Manganese, neurological diseases, and associated pathologies,” “Glyphosate, pathways to modern diseases II: Celiac sprue and gluten intolerance” and “Glyphosate’s Suppression of Cytochrome P450 Enzymes and Amino Acid Biosynthesis by the Gut Microbiome: Pathways to Modern Diseases.”
But many who dismissed the research are now paying more attention.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
FBI, Cops Watching Rhode Island Muslim Linked to Geller Beheading Plot
By Robert Spencer
What is the real matter of concern is what this apparent convert to Islam will do once the police cars leave his street.
Jihad Watch reader Paul informs me that Rovinski was arrested three years ago and charged with throwing a rock through the glass door of a liquor store. Paul asks: “Do you suppose vandalizing a haram liquor store stilled the fury in his believer’s heart (Qur’an 9:15)?” Probably — apparently at least for awhile.
“NBC 10 I-Team: Warwick man connected to Boston terror suspects,” by Parker Gavigan, NBC 10, June 4, 2015:
WARWICK, R.I. — The NBC 10 I-Team has learned through authorities that the Warwick man questioned by police and the FBI is the third man who met with two Boston terror suspects on a Rhode Island beach.
Court documents released Wednesday said Usaama Rahim and David Wright met a then-unidentified third person on a Rhode Island beach Sunday during a heavy rain storm to discuss a plan which involved beheading an unknown victim and also attacking police officers.
[…]
Two days later, Rahim was shot dead by Boston police and the FBI after they said he lunged at them with a military-style knife. The FBI said Rahim was under 24-hour surveillance by the Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Wright was arrested a short time later in Everett, Massachusetts, and told the FBI, according to an affidavit, about the terror plot that was discussed Sunday on the beach.
“They’re connecting the dots there, and evidently one of the dots is connected to down here,” said Bill Donnelly, a resident of the Governor Francis Farms neighborhood in Warwick, now saturated with police and reporters.
NBC News confirmed police and the FBI have been questioning a Rhode Island man since Tuesday. Authorities said he is the person referred to in court documents as having attended a discussion with Rahim and Wright last Sunday “on a beach in Rhode Island, in inclement weather” to talk about Rahim’s plans.
Separately, the NBC 10 I-Team has identified the Warwick man investigated by police as 24-year-old Nicholas Rovinski, who lives a short distance from Gaspee Point with his mother and younger brother on Aspinet Drive. The information was confirmed by a senior law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation.
[If the NBC 10 I-team is on the case, why didn’t they identify the “unknown victim” of the beheading plot? Thanks to the Muslim attack on her Garland, Texas, event, Pamela Geller is quite well known, and her status as the intended victim was reported by the Associated Press on Friday. Moreover, why didn’t the NBC 10 I-team give “David Wright’s” Muslim name, Dawud Sharif Abdul Khaliq, which was reported by NBC on Wednesday? This is part and parcel of the MSM’s reflexive protection of Islam, even while reporting on a Muslim terrorist plot. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Former President Jimmy Carter Sneers at America’s ‘Racist Tendencies’
In a new interview, former Democrat President Jimmy Carter slammed America as a “racist” nation that refuses to let “old wounds” heal.
Carter spoke to the liberal AARP retirement group in an interview that was released late this week. At one point, Carter said that dreams of a color-blind society are still unrealized in the U.S.
“The recent publicity about mistreatment of black people in the judicial and police realm has been a reminder that the dreams of the civil rights movement have not been realized,” Carter said.
Carter continued insisting that “Americans still have racist tendencies or feelings of superiority to people of color.”
This most vocal ex-president has made a post-presidential career of attacking the US but he has also been a loud and strident critic of Israel. He also became a staunch advocate for nearly every state sponsor of terror in the world.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Google Begins Reporting Robocar Wrecks
Following demands from consumer-advocacy groups for more transparency, the tech giant launches a website devoted to its self-driving cars and will begin publishing monthly reports that include accident info.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
The Secret History of Seal Team 6: Quiet Killings and Blurred Lines
They have plotted deadly missions from secret bases in the badlands of Somalia. In Afghanistan, they have engaged in combat so intimate that they have emerged soaked in blood that was not their own. On clandestine raids in the dead of the night, their weapons of choice have ranged from customized carbines to primeval tomahawks.
Around the world, they have run spying stations disguised as commercial boats, posed as civilian employees of front companies and operated undercover at embassies as male-female pairs, tracking those the United States wants to kill or capture.
Those operations are part of the hidden history of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, one of the nation’s most mythologized, most secretive and least scrutinized military organizations. Once a small group reserved for specialized but rare missions, the unit best known for killing Osama bin Laden has been transformed by more than a decade of combat into a global manhunting machine.
That role reflects America’s new way of war, in which conflict is distinguished not by battlefield wins and losses, but by the relentless killing of suspected militants.
[Glad the government’s doing something right. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
EU Referendum: Tory Eurosceptics’ Demands ‘Not Achievable’ — Philip Hammond
One of the key demands of a new group of Eurosceptic Conservative MPs is “not achievable”, Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond has said.
The 50-strong Conservatives for Britain group wants Westminster to be sovereign over European Union law.
But Mr Hammond said a “unilateral red card veto” for the UK would “effectively be the end” of the EU.
Later, President Obama told David Cameron the US was “very much looking forward” to Britain staying in the EU.
The American leader was speaking at a meeting with the prime minister at the G7 summit in Germany.
Mr Cameron wants to renegotiate the UK’s EU membership ahead of an in/out referendum by 2017.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
France Arrests Two More in Church-Attack Terror Plot
Two men were arrested Sunday by French authorities in connection with a thwarted terror plot to attack a church near Paris in April.
In a brief statement, Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said the two new suspects, aged 35 and 39, were arrested at dawn Sunday at their homes in Paris’ western suburbs.
Authorities say Sid Ahmed Ghlam, a computer science student, planned an attack on churches in Villejuif, south of Paris, and is suspected in the killing of a woman nearby.
He was arrested April 26 after apparently shooting himself by accident.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Men Covered in Moss Commemorate Spanish Town’s Liberation 8 Centuries Ago
BEJAR, Spain — Men covered from head to toe in moss have paraded through the streets of Bejar in western Spain to commemorate a daring raid that local legend says helped liberate the town from Muslim occupation some eight centuries ago.
Locals believe that during the reign of King Alfonso VIII of Castile (1155-1214) men camouflaged themselves in moss from local forests to enable them to approach the gates of a Muslim fortress.
Once there, they waited until the drawbridge opened before ambushing the unsuspecting guards. One version of the legend says the guards took fright at the moss-men’s appearance and fled.
Every June the parade coincides with Bejar’s Corpus Christi celebration and town-dwellers shower the moss-men with flower petals as dignitaries and youngsters who have done their first holy communion accompany them.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Romanian Premier to Contest Prosecutors’ Accusations of Corruption, Claims Case is Political
BUCHAREST, Romania — Romania’s prime minister says he will contest prosecutors’ accusations he has engaged in money laundering, forgery and being an accomplice to tax evasion.
Victor Ponta said Sunday the case against him is politically motivated and that he would file a complaint because prosecutors accused him without a formal hearing.
Anti-corruption prosecutors last week said Ponta had entered into contracts with the law firm of a political aide while working as a lawyer in 2007 and 2008 and made expense claims which were not related to legal work.
President Klaus Iohannis called on Ponta to resign warning Romania could enter a political crisis. He refused and denied wrongdoing.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Spain in the Eye of the Storm of Jihad
by Soeren Kern
At least 50,000 Muslim converts are currently living in Spain. Police say that converts are especially susceptible to radicalization because they are facing increasing pressure from Islamists who are calling on them to carry out attacks to “demonstrate their commitment” to their new faith.
Spain has also become a key entry point for human trafficking mafias being used by jihadist veterans seeking to return to Europe after fighting in the Middle East.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Sweden: “Discrimination Map” Aims to Help Harassed Students
The youth wing of a sex education group have developed an online tool to let students report instances of abuse or harassment at schools, Swedish Radio in Stockholm reports.
The Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights youth group launched the diskrimineringskartan, or discrimination map, to help alert school about possible problems.
Students can anonymously submit reports of harassment or abuse they suffered due to their sexual orientation and race.
“Are you met with trans-phobia, homophobia or racism at school? You are not alone!” the website reads. “Here on diskrimineringskartan, you can anonymously talk about what happened, get support and advice.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
UK Police Officer Sacked Over ‘Offensive and Racist’ Facebook Comments
Greater Manchester police have sacked an officer over “offensive and racist” comments posted on Facebook about Muslims. In the second hearing of its kind heard in public, the officer, referred to only as Officer A, admitted gross misconduct. A panel found he breached standards for equality and diversity.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah El-Sissi Issues Rare Apology After Lawyer Beaten by Police
CAIRO — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi has issued a rare apology after a police officer beat a lawyer, sparking a general strike by the country’s lawyers.
The Lawyer’s Syndicate issued the call for a strike that began Saturday. They said it was to protest a deputy police chief who attacked a lawyer in the country’s Nile Delta.
In statement Sunday, el-Sissi said: “I apologize to the Egyptian lawyers and to all Egyptian citizens who have been the subject of any abuse.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Mediterranean Foreign Ministers Call for Stability in Libya
Foreign ministers from Algeria, Egypt and Italy called for a peaceful political solution in Libya on Sunday, saying that stability in the war-torn country would lead to reduced illegal migration to Europe.
Egypt and Algeria both have long, porous borders with Libya. Thousands of migrants seeking a better life in Europe cast off from Libya on rickety boats, hoping to reach Italy. Hundreds have died on the route this year alone.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry stressed at a joint news conference that Libya must form a unity government. He said Egypt supports Libya’s internationally recognized government and army in “fighting terrorism.”
Libya is divided between rival governments and militias, while militants allied to the Islamic State group grow in power.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
22 Dead as Saudi-Led Airstrikes Hit Yemen’s Army Headquarters
SANAA, Yemen — Saudi-led airstrikes before dawn Sunday targeted the headquarters of Yemen’s armed forces in the rebel-held capital, killing at least 22 people, officials said.
They said the dead were mostly soldiers and that the airstrikes damaged several nearby homes, shaking Sanaa. Residents said at least three airstrikes hit the headquarters, a short distance from the city’s center.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Yemen’s Houthi Rebels and Their Patrons Dream of Occupying Mecca and Medina
On a visit of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister for Religious Affairs and Dawah Abdul Aziz Al-Ammar has said that Pakistan’s nuclear bomb is not of Pakistan alone but belongs to the entire Islamic world. The Saudi minister’s statement came in the wake of a resolution adopted by the Pakistani parliament that called for a neutral Pakistani stance on the Yemen conflict.
Al-Ammar, who is visiting Pakistan to clarify the Saudi standpoint on the Yemen conflict, stated at a meeting in Karachi that “Pakistan is our friend-country. We hope that at this stage cooperation will be done with us (in Yemen). He said that Pakistan’s atom (bomb) is not of Pakistan alone but is of the world of Islam. The entire world of Islam is proud of it…”
“We are proud of Pakistan’s atomic program,” said the Saudi minister, according to an April 17 report — titled “Pakistan’s atomic bomb belongs to the world of Islam: Saudi minister” and published by an Urdu-language website.
Speaking about the Iranian role in Yemen, Al-Ammar said: “We have verified evidence that Iran is providing all support to the (Houthi) rebels, and Iran is behind the rebellion. We will not permit anyone to interfere in the Arabian Peninsula.” He added: “We have the proof that the Houthi rebels have acted with Iranian support and Iranian weapons.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Daesh is Getting Stronger While Western Countries Twiddle Their Thumbs
Grim experience had not prevented Western and regional leaders from being influenced by gusts of false optimism. Before the fall of Mosul, nobody seemed to pay much attention to the fact that Isis had captured Fallujah and was operating freely from the Iranian border to Aleppo. After Isis seized much of northern and western Iraq last June, one might have expected it to be taken seriously, and so it was, briefly. But then Middle East conspiracy theorists intervened, claiming that Isis was just the old Baath party disguised in Islamic garb, while in Baghdad it became conventional wisdom that Isis had done a deal with the Kurds who had stabbed the Iraqi army in the back.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
By R. Krespin
The 12-year rule of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) is becoming defined by pan-Islamism in domestic and foreign policy, an authoritarian single-man/single-party rule, Turkey’s transformation into a police state, mass arrests, curbs on press freedom, elimination of the judiciary’s independence, nepotism, and societal polarization.
On May 17, at a rally in Kayseri, Erdogan attacked the Dogan Media Group and its Hurriyet daily on the headline incident, saying: “Our death is honorable. Mursi’s death is honorable.” He told the crowd that if Egypt implements the death sentence against Mursi, which he hoped it would not, then his Muslim brother Mursi will attain the highest status of martyrdom: “If I face a similar fate, I believe that Allah, with His grace, will grant me that high status as well, inshallah. The hill of the shahids (martyrs) is not empty. They are waiting there (for us). We started walking on our path towards that hill that awaits us, carrying our goal (to join them) with honor and pride over our heads. If we die, we will become shahids on that path. Let that certain team (i.e. Dogan media) ponder what will happen to them when they die.”
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Election Observers Threatened in Turkey
Elections observers in Turkey said they were intimidated and forcibly removed from polling stations by the Turkish military, Swedish media reports.
Swedish Radio in Gävleborg reports that a delegation from that city was thrown out by military personnel from a polling station in the southeastern town of Adiyaman.
“The military must not be within 100 meters of a polling station, so we said (to the soldiers) that what you are doing is illegal,” Ellen Gustafsson, a monitor with the Swedish Left Party’s youth wing, told the radio station.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Iraqi Troops Reportedly Advance Against ISIS in Key Refinery Town
Iraqi troops and Shiite militias recaptured key parts of the refinery town of Beiji from ISIS Sunday, a general said.
The victory comes a day after Iraqi forces were able to withstand two attacks from ISIS in the hotly contested Anbar province Saturday.
The commander of the Interior Ministry’s Quick Reaction Forces, Brig. Gen. Nassir al-Fartousi, told state TV that the Iraqi flag was raised on a local government building in Beiji and that troops were advancing to other areas, without elaborating.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Magazine Dabiq Withdrawn From Sale by Amazon
Copies of Islamic State’s English-language propaganda magazine, Dabiq, have been pulled from the website of online retailer Amazon.
Four different volumes were available for sale on the site, but in a statement to the BBC, Amazon said the product had now been removed.
The author of the publications was listed as al-Hayat Media Centre, which is IS’s Western-focused media arm.
Islamic State is a proscribed terrorist organisation in the UK.
The magazines were being sold in paperback form on Amazon sites in the UK, US, France, Germany, Italy and Spain. It can be downloaded for free elsewhere.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Islamic State Recruiting ‘Highly Trained Foreigners’ To Produce Chemical Weapons
How can they attract “highly trained foreigners” when they represent, as every Western authority will tell us, a twisted version of Islam that outrages all of the true, peaceful principles of the religion? The cognitive dissonance is absolute, but no one in any position of power or influence seems to notice or care.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Lacking Absolute Majority, Erdogan’s Party Wins Turkish Election
Turkey has wrapped up parliamentary elections that will determine whether governing lawmakers can rewrite the constitution. Exit polls put President Erdogan clearly ahead. But a pro-Kurdish party has stolen his show.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Said to Raise Military Spending to $60bn by 2020
Saudi Arabia will reportedly increase military spending by almost a quarter over the next five years, according to a report by IHS Jane’s.
The Gulf kingdom is forecast to boost its arms budget to $60 billion by 2020 from a current level of $49 billion, following a slowdown in the short-term caused by the lower price of oil, reported Bloomberg which cited the study.
The report said the increase in spending will make Saudi Arabia the world’s fifth-largest military spender, up from eighth.
“Despite Saudi Arabia’s heavy exposure to oil-price fluctuations there have been very few signs of any severe reactionary adjustments to government spending. Longer-term prospects remain strong,” it quoted Craig Caffrey, principal defence budget analyst at IHS, as saying.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudis Uphold Blogger Lashes Sentence
Saudi Arabia’s supreme court has upheld the sentence of 1,000 lashes and 10 years imprisonment on blogger Raif Badawi, despite a foreign outcry.
In March, the kingdom expressed “surprise and dismay” at international criticism over the punishment.
At the time, the foreign ministry issued a statement saying it rejected interference in its internal affairs.
In 2012, Badawi was arrested and charged with “insulting Islam through electronic channels”.
For four years he had been running the Liberal Saudi Network, which encouraged online debate on religious and political issues.
Badawi received his first 50 lashes in January, but subsequent floggings have been postponed.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Saudi Arabia Hosts UN-Backed Human Rights Summit ‘On Combating Religious Discrimination’
Saudi Arabia has hosted an international conference on human rights, attended by the president of the UN Human Rights Council, and resolved to combat intolerance and violence based on religious belief.
The kingdom convened the fifth annual meeting of the Istanbul Process as its Supreme Court prepared to rule on the case of blogger Raif Badawi, sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for “insulting Islam through religious channels”. It later upheld the sentence.
The UN HRC recently faced criticism over Saudi plans to head up the council from 2016, in what critics said would be the “final nail in the coffin” for the international body.
And the Geneva-based human rights campaign group UN Watch accused HRC president Joachim Rücker of giving “false international legitimacy” to the two-day conference on religious freedoms held in Jeddah on 3 and 4 June.
According to a report in the Saudi Gazette, the participants in the conference “began with an agreement to put (HRC) resolution 16/18 into effect” — a pledge by all member states to combat “intolerance and discrimination, incitement to violence and violence against persons based on religion or belief”.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey’s Erdogan: ‘Jewish Capital’ is Behind New York Times
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out at foreign media on Saturday, saying “Jewish capital” was behind the New York Times and that the British Guardian should “know its limits.”
Erdogan’s statements were made during a campaign rally for his AK Party, one day before the Turkish national elections, which could pave the way for the expansion of Erdogan’s executive powers.
This prospect was viewed with concern by the New York Times and the Guardian in recently published editorials, titled “Dark clouds over Turkey” and “Growing autocracy threatens a crucial country,” respectively.
Addressing the crowd at the eastern province of Ardahan on Saturday, Erdogan slammed the NYT, accusing it of a consistent stance against Turkey’s leaders dating back to the days of the Ottoman Empire. “It’s clear who their patrons are. There is Jewish capital behind it, unfortunately,” Erdogan told the crowds, AFP reported.
[…]
The New York Times editorial, published last month, accused Erdogan of being “increasingly hostile to truth-telling.” “While the country has faced tough political campaigns before, this one is especially vicious and the mood seems unusually dark and fearful,” it said, citing the crackdown on Turkish media outlets critical of Erdogan.
“After more than a decade of amassing power as Turkey’s leader,” the editorial added, “Mr. Erdogan could be on the verge of realizing his dream of changing the Constitution to make the president, rather than the prime minister, the leading political authority.”
Following the editorial’s publication, Erdogan accused the Times in a panel in Istanbul of meddling with Turkey’s internal affairs, saying the newspaper would never dare to publish such an editorial about the U.S. administration.
[Hilarious! If Erdogan loses the election he’s got a great future in standup. — PW]
| — Hat tip: Papa Whiskey | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Sees End of Single Party Gov’t as AK Party Vote Drops Significantly
After 13 years of domination as a single-party government, the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which has been receiving growing criticism for pursuing highly divisive, authoritarian and repressive policies, saw a significant erosion of support in Sunday’s election and it failed to secure the 276 seats in the Parliament necessary to continue its single-party rule for another term.
The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party’s (HDP), which opted to run as a party in this election for the first time, rather than fielding independent candidates to circumvent the country’s 10 percent election threshold, managed to pass the barrier, which reduced the number of seats in Parliament that would have otherwise gone to the AK Party. Hence, the establishment of a coalition government is back on Turkey’s agenda after more than a decade.
This result has also likely thwarted the plans of the AK Party government and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to change the country’s Constitution and transform Turkey’s parliamentary system into a presidential system, which many analysts said would enable Erdogan to continue accumulating power and give rise to a system without the necessary checks and balances.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Turkey Ruling AKP ‘Loses Majority’
Turkey’s governing AK party appears on course to lose its parliamentary majority, early projections suggest.
They also suggest the pro-Kurdish HDP is set to cross the 10% threshold, securing seats for the first time.
With 90% of the vote counted, the AKP had 42% of the vote, according to Turkish TV stations.
If confirmed, the result would end the AKP’s 13-year single-party rule, and upset President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s plans to boost his office’s powers.
President Erdogan, who first came to power as prime minister in 2003, has been seeking a two-thirds majority to turn Turkey into a presidential republic.
The BBC’s Mark Lowen in Istanbul says Sunday’s election was the biggest electoral challenge for the AKP since it came to power, with economic growth stalling.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
What Can You be Flogged for in Saudi Arabia?
In 2006, two men and a 75-year-old woman were sentenced to flogging for “moral crimes” — they’d met members of the opposite sex who weren’t “close relatives”. During their trial the men claimed they had been delivering bread to Khamisa Mohammed Sawadi.
Several women have been sentenced to lashes after they staged a driving protest to highlight discrimination against women.
A Filipino man was sentenced to jail and 75 lashings for bringing two chocolate bars containing alcohol into the country. He claimed he’d bought the chocolates on a flight stopover and hadn’t realised they were alcoholic. Alcohol is banned in Saudi Arabia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Koreans Win DARPA Robotics Challenge
A South Korean robotics team has won the Darpa Robotics Challenge.
The contest is a battle of robots on an obstacle course meant to simulate conditions similar to the 2011 Fukushima nuclear plant disaster.
Team Kaist’s DRC-Hubo humanoid robot defeated 22 others to win the top $2m prize from the US Department of Defense’s Darpa research unit.
The robots had an hour to complete a series of tasks, such as a driving a car and walking up steps.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
South Africa: Genitals Stolen in Morgue
By Mervyn Naidoo
Durban — The workings of the illicit but lucrative trade in body parts came to the fore this week when the mutilated bodies of two elderly women were discovered at a top Durban funeral facility.
The women, aged 96 and 69, both from the greater Durban area, were sent to the Greyville branch of Doves Funeral parlour last week. They had died of natural causes.
However, on Monday, it was discovered that the vaginas and a breast had been harvested from each woman. Their identities are known to the Sunday Tribune.
Doves has placed six of its funeral directors at their facility on suspension, because the genitalia were lifted under their watch.
According to a well-placed source both bodies arrived intact last week.
The grim find was made by an attendant conducting an administrative duty, the source said…
| — Hat tip: RRN | [Return to headlines] |
Half a Million Refugees Gather in Libya to Attempt Perilous Crossing to Europe
Up to half a million refugees are gathering in Libya to attempt the crossing to Europe on the deadly boats that have killed thousands already.
The toll of misery was revealed by senior Royal Navy officers leading Britain’s Mediterranean rescue mission off the Libyan coast. Britain’s amphibious assault ship HMS Bulwark has helped save around 4,000 refugees before they drowned having set sail in unseaworthy boats.
The ship’s 350-strong company of sailors and Royal Marines is bracing itself to rescue a further 3,000. Captain Nick Cooke-Priest said: “Indications are that there are 450,000 to 500,000 migrants in Libya who are waiting at the border.”
As he spoke, intelligence reports were warning Bulwark’s crew, which is among about 11 rescue vessels in the central Mediterranean, of thousands more migrants in the water. Britain is working with the Italian navy on Operation Weald to rescue migrants who have fallen prey to people smuggling gangs in Libya.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Italian Leaders Vow Not to Shelter Any More Rescued Migrants
ROME — Heartened by recent election successes by an anti-immigrant party, Italian politicians based in the north vowed Sunday not to shelter any more migrants saved at sea, even as thousands more were being rescued in the Mediterranean from smugglers’ boats in distress.
Elsewhere in the country, however, corruptions investigations have revealed that some local officials gleefully see a cash cow in the shelters.
Over the weekend, nearly 6,000 migrants were rescued by an array of European military vessels, including 2,371 who were saved on Sunday from 15 boats that ran into difficulty shortly after smugglers set off with them from Libyan shores, the Italian coast guard said.
Two German military ships brought a total of some 1,400 people to Sicilian ports Sunday, a day after they were rescued.
Mayors of Sicilian and other southern towns have warned for months they’ve run out of room for migrants, and thousands of the rescued are being resettled in shelters in central and northern Italy while their asylum requests are processed. The migrants flee poverty, persecution and war in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Half a million refugees are massing in Libya to try and flee to Europe on the migrant boats that have killed thousands already.
The huge number of people was revealed yesterday by senior Royal Navy officers leading Britain’s Mediterranean rescue mission off the Libyan coast.
British flagship HMS Bulwark was last night speeding across the Mediterranean to help rescue thousands of migrants said to be stranded at sea having set off on the dangerous journey from Libya to Europe.
The Royal Navy assault ship was one of 11 vessels on their way to a major rescue operation as it emerged the migrants had set off to take advantage of the good weather.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedes Head for First Rescue in Mediterranean
The Swedish Coast Guard ship Poseidon will see its first rescue mission in the Mediterranean on Sunday. The ship is set to rescue around 300 migrants in distress off the coast of Libya.
According to the Coast Guard, the Poseidon will make its way on Sunday to a point north of the Libya capital Tripoli to pick up the migrants, who are traveling in an older wooden boat.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Swedish Coast Guard Rescues Mediterranean Migrants
A Swedish ship rescued some 250 migrants in the Mediterranean after they called for assistance late Saturday off the coast of Libya.
The Coast Guard ship Poseidon arrived at the scene at 11 a.m. Sunday and took aboard 262 migrants who were traveling in a wooden boat.
The ship’s captain Joakim Håkansson told news agency TT that the 20-meter open deck boat had people from Eritrea, Somalia and Syria inside. He said their vessel was not seaworthy.
“That boat is going to sink,” Håkansson told TT.
“It is a simple boat overloaded with people. They do not have enough fuel to cross the sea,” coast guard spokesman Mattias Lindholm told newspaper Dagens Nyheter.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
America Forcing Sodomy on the Universe
For over a decade I argued statewide in Maine that the addition of “sexual orientation” to the Maine Human Rights Act would have far-reaching consequences. I predicted that Maine would quickly destroy marriage by making sodomy an acceptable precondition for state-recognized marriages.
The government went further than I imagined possible. In addition to “sexual orientation” they included the category of gender, “trans” gender to be more specific. This is more accurately described as cross dressing on steroids, just as “sexual orientation” is more accurately imagined as sexual perversion.
Maine started down this legal rabbit hole of deviance in 2009. In 2012 a slim majority of Mainers voted to end civil marriage.
And now public school teachers are forcing all Maine children to begin thinking about the virtues of sodomy at 7 years of age.
[…]
Make no mistake. When a lesbian activist in charge is telling a father in Lexington, Massachusetts that the elementary school can promote the idea of homosexual households to his seven year old son in the name of the law it is clear that we are engaged in a culture war the likes of which this country has never seen. Folks, we are up to our eyeballs in a culture war.
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
[WARNING: Disturbing Content.]
Are we to accept, because science says that a sexual deviant’s behavior is hard wired, that we as a society should accept their actions with open arms and accommodate their behavior regardless of the damage it places on the rest of society?
The Gawker released an article by Noel Shepard, titled, “Pedophilia is a Sexual Orientation.” The following headline actually appeared at Gawker: “Born This Way: Sympathy and Science for Those Who Want to Have Sex with Children.”
The first thing we have to notice is his reference to “sex” with children and not classifying it as “rape.” He speaks about research done that, in his opinion, proves that anyone with a sexual attraction to children is wired to feel that way. He compares pedophilia to homosexuality or heterosexuality. Through this reasoning, he asks the question,
“And if pedophilia is a sexual orientation, that also means it’s futile to send pedophiles to prison in an effort to alter their attractions.”
If I am not mistaken, a prison term for sexually abusing a child is a punishment for your actions. Rehabilitation occurs while you are serving your time. Is he reasoning that if pedophilia is actually a sexual orientation that their crimes should not be punished with a prison term? Is he reasoning that because sexual predators are treated so badly in prison for their horrific actions towards children that they should not be sent to prison? If this is his argument, then how do we come to terms with how badly the pedophile treated the child they molested? How do we come to terms that we are supposed to feel bad for the pedophile and ignore the lifetime effects that the child they abused will be forced to endure? Are we supposed to excuse the actions of a pedophile while ignoring the consequences suffered by their victims?
| — Hat tip: JD | [Return to headlines] |
Pride in London 2015: UKIP Rejected From Pro-LGBT Parade ‘To Protect Participants’
Ukip has been banned from joining marchers at London’s world-famous gay pride parade to “ensure the event passes on safely and in the right spirit”.
Almost 2,400 people had signed an online petition to exclude the political party, calling Ukip “inherently homophobic, transphobic, xenophobic, racist and misogynistic”.
It cited Nigel Farage’s comments on HIV treatment, the party’s opposition to same-sex marriage and other “controversial views” voiced by members.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
FIFA Corruption: Documents Show Details of Jack Warner ‘Bribes’
A BBC investigation has seen evidence that details what happened to the $10m sent from Fifa to accounts controlled by former vice-president Jack Warner.
The money, sent on behalf of South Africa, was meant to be used for its Caribbean diaspora legacy programme.
But documents suggest Mr Warner used the payment for cash withdrawals, personal loans and to launder money.
The 72-year-old, who has been indicted by the US FBI for corruption, denies all claims of wrongdoing.
Fifa says it is co-operating with the investigation.
| — Hat tip: Fjordman | [Return to headlines] |
Not often that real good news comes up in these ‘news feeds’ Baron, but that result in Turkey is most definitely good news!
But the good ‘news’ is of course countered with so much bad ‘news’, especially the stupidity now being displayed by European countries, including Britain, in going to the rescue of so many of our enemy who masquerade as media sponsored/promoted, ‘asylum seekers’.
Could Western insanity be more openly displayed than this?
Half a million precious muslims are waiting to burn Europe. Replenish is constant. It is a renewable source: never ending … coming from four wombs. Europe, being very advanced and civilized, thinking about climate change and pollution, . . . Europeans like renewable sources.
Some wise Europeans are frustrated, nay, on the brink of exploding from anger at their rulers kindness towards muslim invaders, still they don’t care about their citizen’s anger. And no doubt they are still not dictators.